AS the skeleton of the biggest timber ship to be built in Ireland this century takes shape in New Ross, Co Wexford, young unemployed Irish people are learning a range of craft skills which could transform their job prospects.
Even at this early stage, the Dunbrody project is spectacular.
In a reinstated dry-dock outside the town, huge oak and greenheart beams are being hewn and sawn into the graceful curves required for a 176-foot three-masted barque.
Under the supervision of an international team of experienced shipwrights, this reconstruction of a 19th-century emigrant ship is a Pounds 2.6 million project with multiple spin-off implications for tourism, training, local development and new enterprise.
The project is the brainchild of the JFK Trust, a charitable trust and limited company dedicated to the cultural, economic and environmental development of New Ross.
It is essentially a major tourism promotional project, hingeing on the Kennedy family connection with the town to encourage and re-establish links with North America.
The Kennedy connection, may be somewhat ephemeral. It is not possible to establish definitively that Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy, great- grandparents of John F. Kennedy, left New Ross quay rather than some other nearby harbour to seek their fortune in the US in 1849.
The completed Dunbrody will be a full-scale seagoing vessel, modelled as closely as possible on an emigrant ship built in 1845 in Quebec for the prosperous Graves family of New Ross.
The maiden voyage, planned for March 1999, will be to Boston, retracing the route taken by the original Duinbrody as it ferried thousands of Famine emigrants to the US and Canada.
On returning, the elegant sailing ship will become a major tourist attraction on the quays of New Ross, housing a high-tech "Spirit of Ireland" interpretative exhibition. This will enable visitors to access a computer database on Irish immigration to the US from 1820 onwards.
Later, in off-peak tourist periods, it will be possible to sail the ship to other locations around the world to promote Ireland in general and New Ross in particular as a tourism destination.
For the moment, the building of the 458-ton ship is the primary objective. It is a startling project to visit. The 200-foot dry-dock of the old Ross company boatyard has been roofed and is dominated by the developing stern section of the ship.
After the project team completed detailed research in the early 1990s, including locating the original bill of lading for the "Dunbrody of 1845, a design was drawn up by the renowned naval architect, Colin Mudie, noted for other tall-ship creations such as The Lord Nelson, Royalist and Matthew.
The project was fortunate to gain the use of the defunct Ross dry-dock, where once up to 1,000 people built barges, mainly for Africa.
It was designated as a primary, regional project and received approval from Bord Failte for Pounds 1.6 million European Regional Funding grant- aid. A core team of seven or eight shipwrights was assembled from various parts of the world. A full-size template drawing was made and when colossal quantities of Irish oak and Guianan greenheart were sourced and ordered the ship-building began.
It is supported by FAS, which provided the bulk of the labour. Under expert supervision, some 30 trainees, including two women, are assembling the ship; much of the more complex shapes being carved out with traditional tools made by the project's full-time blacksmith, Pat Byrne.
Mr Byrne, from Hacketstown, Co Carlow, had previously spent 10 years shoeing horses at the National Stud. Now his primary - task is to machine the thousands of sturdy steel bolts which will hold the vessel together, and later he will make the myriad metal fittings needed for such a substantial sailing ship.
The original Dunbrody would have had a crew of 14 and was capable of carrying 176 passengers. The new Dunbrody will carry the computerised immigrant data base and exhibition instead of passengers, but Bill need a highly-skilled crew to sail this, Ireland's biggest tall ship, across the Atlantic.
A feasibility study has indicated that when the Dunhrody is moored at New Ross quays the interest could generate an additional 70,000 visitors to the area, with spin-off benefits to the catering, retail and accommodation sectors.